Month: January 2019

Kick! Get your brain out of the gutter! :)First off, the answer is YES, I grew that tomato one year 🙂

The 2010’s are going to be remembered as the birth of the “meal kit” delivered to your door. There are so many of them, now it is hard to keep track of how many are around now. Meal kit delivery has now morphed into a few different things. Now you can order the whole meal with no preparation involved, just pop it in the oven(?). I haven’t tried that, but it just sounds like glorified TV dinner to me. There are higher end meal kits for foodies, there are vegan meal kits now too.

On my facebook feed this ad kept coming up for this place called Misfits Market, and it had a picture of an eggplant that had a defect that looked like my tomato. That ad winked at me for weeks. Click on the funky eggplant “wink”, scroll. Next day click on the funky eggplant “wink” scroll. Finally, curiosity got me, and I clicked. Misfits Market, it turns out, is one of the things that meal kits morphed in to. Instead of getting a meal to assemble, you are getting fresh organic produce at a reasonable price . The kicker? The produce is the stuff from farms that gets rejected from retailers because of things like : it’s too small, it’s too big, it just isn’t pretty enough, it has a protrusion that looks like a p#nis growing out of it, whatever. This produce usually just gets tossed out and wasted. Misfits Market buys up this stuff, boxes it and sends it to subscribers OR you can try it out one time without subscribing (and it’s not a trick).

Since, I am not picky when it comes to fruits and vegetables, I decided to get a box to check it out, so I paid the one time price $23.50 for a Mischief Box, which ended up being $28.ish with shipping. It took a while because these folks got completely slammed on cyber Monday and had to play catch up, so I had to wait a bit. I got my box a few weeks later and boy was it worth it!

It came in a regular compostable cardboard box with that biodegradable insulation that you run water over. I think it’s made out of potato starch. Here is what was in the first box:

Do you see anything “ugly” here? It was all great! Maybe a bit small, maybe had a little blemish, that’s it. Those little purple brussels sprouts were amazingly sweet. They must have been too small for the grocery store. There was nothing wrong with the avocados that I could see. I used turnips for the first time ever. Everything was great! So, I decided to subscribe to see of this was just a one-off. When you subscribe the price goes down to $23.ish per box.

Box #2

Box 2 was different produce, but the quality was still good. Two small little heads of cabbage were perfect. the onions were bigger than softballs, and mangos!! I think one pear had a dent and the apples were little, but tasty. Last week was much better though.

Box #3

Lots of root vegetables. It’s that time of your, right? The sweet potatoes are very sweet and very bright inside. The green beans are perfect. Seriously there is nothing wrong with any of this, and you can tell by the flavor that it’s organic. This box was excellent! Grapefruits even. And what to do with that bag of baby turnips?

All in all, I have kept my subscription for now. I prefer to eat organic, but some of the prices are ridiculous. This service is way more affordable, AND they bring it to me. It has also made me eat a more diverse variety of vegetables that I never would have even given a thought to. I am eating more fruits and vegetables because it’s like a mystery box comes. I don’t have to pick stuff out. It just shows up, like magic. I never know what is going to be in there (mine comes every other week). So it’s always a surprise! It makes me expand my palate, and challenges my cooking skills. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a potato shaped like Jabba the Hut. I can’t wait to see what starts showing up in Spring! -JAP-

Yesterday evening I posted about a road closure on Scotland Rd, Newstead. A reader blasted me on Facebook claiming that this was false information, and I just want to clarify, as this was NOT false information.

In a storm like this one, I get the bulk of my information from the police scanner. I report on what I hear if there is enough info to report on. Here is what happened:

A report came through from the Sheriffs saying that there was a huge drift by the Akron Airport on Scotland Rd. The Sheriffs said that they were going get hold of Akron Police to see if they should close that part of the road. Remember this is all scanner chat during a blizzard. Then someone (maybe a sheriff) said to just close it. I posted it on Facebook as I thought it would be relevant for anyone trying to get out here. Then someone blasted me, and said it was false information etc etc….5 Minutes after that TOTAL TRAVEL BAN in AKRON/NEWSTEAD.

Being that we were in the middle of the biggest storm in years, and I am the Editor, Reporter, Photographer, Videographer, producer, intern, art dept and everything else for this site….5000 things were going on at once, and I don’t have a trained clone to watch everything. It was HARD! News was coming out SO FAST I could hardly keep up. Sometimes things get mish mashed and people send me corrections, which are WELCOME. But this was NOT FALSE REPORTING.

TODAY I called and followed up with Akron Police and Akron Fire. Here is the information I got: All they know is that there was a vehicle off the road by the airport, and a tow had to be called in to drag it out. The Sheriffs just dealt with it without calling in Akron. I am not calling the Sheriffs to verify as they have enough on their plate today to deal with, and I think it is quite obvious what happened. I actually drive that road daily and know how it gets in that spot with blowing snow. It looks like Albino Egypt sand dunes.

I am going to assume, they closed that part of the road to clear the accident and then there was a travel ban anyway.

I’m doing my BEST here to keep you all, my neighbors informed with no help. Little glitches and misunderstandings like that are going to happen when news is flying out at a pace like that. I am the first to admit that I am not perfect, but I am doing the best I possibly can.

I look forward to reporting on something other than our lovely, ever changing Great Lakes Weather shortly! I have a terrific recipe for you all, keep your eyes on this space!